By Stephen DeAngelis
The past decade has witnessed expert after expert insisting that supply chains need to digitalize. Slowly but surely that advice is being adopted. The DHL staff notes, “Digitalization is already delivering significant advances in productivity, speed and visibility to supply chain operations.”[1] They predict, however, that digitalization is only a stepping stone to the next advancement: orchestration. They explain, “Orchestration promises to build on and amplify those benefits.” The concept of supply chain orchestration has been around for a few years. Supply chain journalist Dan Gilmore writes, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but over the last few years there has been a lot of talk about supply chain orchestration. It’s an appealing concept, bringing to mind images of a maestro masterfully bringing in the right instruments at just the right time, and leading a disparate group of individuals with different tools to make beautiful music together.”[2] He then pointedly asks, “What does orchestration really mean in a supply chain context? Is there a supply chain conductor who is furiously moving his arms, baton in hand, bringing together Plan, Source, Make. Deliver and Returns?” Those are good questions.
The Future of Supply Chain Orchestration
The need for supply chain orchestration is real. Dominik Metzger, President and Chief Product Officer at SAP Supply Chain Management, explains, “In an era defined by geopolitical instability, tariffs, inflation, climate pressures, and rapid technological change, traditional supply chains — built on rigid, linear models — are ill-equipped to meet the flexibility and responsiveness that today’s fast-paced markets demand.”[3] He adds, “To thrive in this environment, enterprises must evolve from reactive management to proactive orchestration, powered by artificial intelligence.”
Metzger agrees with the DHL Supply Chain staff that digitalization is the foundation upon which orchestration builds. “While digitalization increases visibility and resilience,” he writes, “it focuses heavily on fixing foundational data challenges, such as data completeness and correctness and using this data for critical business decision-making.” And, like the DHL staff, he argues that businesses must take the next step forward. He explains, “Leading organizations are going further, by leveraging AI to automate decisions entirely, which enables the orchestration of supply chains by integrating applications, data and new automation technologies into truly agile operations.”
Metzger goes on to explain, “Applications trained on industry-specific business data, such as AI agents, can detect threats, analyze their potential impact, recommend mitigation strategies, and even execute responses before disruptions occur. This proactive capability pushes supply chain operations beyond basic digitalization, empowering teams to make faster, smarter decisions.” Gilmore writes, “OK, that sounds pretty good.” He then asks the really big question, “How do we get there?”[4]
Getting There
For the past several years, Enterra Solutions® has focused on advancing Enterra Autonomous Decision Science® (ADS®) to help clients reach the next level of supply chain optimization. The culmination of this effort is a set of solutions we call the Enterra System of Intelligence®. This System ushers in a new era of AI-enabled management science by merging cutting-edge analytical techniques with a business’ data and knowledge to Sense, Think, Act, and Learn® on enterprise data to meet the changing needs of the market. Enterra’s System acts as central “brain” within an organization, ingesting diverse datasets, business logic and practices, and strategy, to uncover unique insights and generate autonomous recommendations across the enterprise at market speed. Insights and recommendations generated by the Enterra System of Intelligence are acted upon through deep integrations with an organization’s established systems of record and engagement, akin to how the brain (decision-making) and central nervous system (actions) interact within the human body. Enterra’s system uniquely learns the environmental reasons that recommendations are successful or not and persists that learning in its Ontologies and Generative AI knowledge bases to improve future insights and recommendations. The business application modules included in the Enterra System of Intelligence are:
• Enterra Consumer Insights Intelligence System™. This System allows clients to quantitatively uncover and logically understand the inter-relationships that lead to heightened consumer understanding, hyper-personalized product recommendations, and new product innovation.
• Enterra Revenue Growth Intelligence System™ (ERGIS™). ERGIS systemically performs holistic revenue growth optimization (including optimizing strategic and tactical pricing, trade promotion, trade architecture, price pack architecture, media mix, customer segmentation, and assortment).
• Enterra Demand and Supply Chain Intelligence System™. This System concurrently performs non-linear demand and supply planning optimization.
• Enterra Business WarGaming™. Business WarGaming enables organizations to leverage their data to make strategic decisions by anticipating the moves of their competitors and taking direct action to beat the competition, mitigate risk, navigate uncertainty, and maximize market opportunity. Part of Enterra Business WarGaming is the Enterra Global Insights and Decision Superiority System™ (EGIDS™) — powered by the Enterra Autonomous Decision Science™ platform — which can help business leaders rapidly explore a multitude of options and scenarios.
The following video provides a glimpse of what is possible.
Video https://youtu.be/GyOCQXe_Hzw
This powerful capability uniquely enables end-to-end Value Chain Optimization and decision-making at scale. It allows clients to uncover and understand the inter-relationships that lead to innovative new product development and innovation, heightened consumer understanding and targeted marketing, revenue growth tactics, and intelligent demand and supply-chain planning.
Concluding Thoughts
The DHL staff concludes, “The true potential of orchestration will be realized when it is applied to the planning, coordination, and execution of all supply chain activities, including transportation, warehousing, packaging and inventory.” With so much focus being given to supply chain orchestration, it is little wonder that Metzger reports, “Advanced analytics and AI are the top technology investment priorities for supply chain leaders over the next three years.” Gilmore is convinced. He concludes, “The autonomous orchestrating supply chain is coming, with our supply chain offices increasingly crowded AI agents. It’s going to be a brave new world.”
Footnotes
[1] DHL Supply Chain Staff, “Orchestration: The future of supply chain,” Fast Company, 15 July 2024.
[2] Dan Gilmore, “Maestros Wanted to Orchestrate Supply Chains, Part 1,” Supply Chain Digest, 14 November 2025.
[3] Dominik Metzger, “Why autonomous orchestration is the next frontier in supply chain management,” World Economic Forum, 3 November 2025.
[4] Dan Gilmore, “Maestros Wanted to Orchestrate Supply Chains, Part 2,” Supply Chain Digest, 21 November 2025.
